Customer Reviews

My Wife's Affair

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My book group intended to read another title but, when several of us couldn't get through that other choice, someone (having seen a glowing review of My Wife's Affair) suggested a last minute switch to this recently released gem. None of us needed more than 2 days to finish this book; none of us could put it down.

All 5 of us (4 women and 1 man) related to the compromises that both actor Georgie and writer Peter had made at the outset of parenthood, and to the pull to return to her art that Georgie feels once her 3 boys are placed in school, and she finds herself deliciously free and unencumbered in her new surrounds as an American expatriate in London.

Peter is also a sympathetic character, and for me it was his voice, as well as the powerful ending that will stay with me for years to come, his gorgeous wisdom and keen, lushly delivered observations that pulled so strongly at my heart, that convinced me that Woodruff has earned every point of each of her five stars.

Nancy Woodruff has written a novel about adultery that begins as a story about a happy couple raising their children in suburban New York. From there their lives slowly veer off course. Told from the point of view of Peter, the husband and father, we hear first about how dedicated and loving Georgie is. She is an exemplary mother and clearly a MILF that Peter is lucky to have. We understand only too late how he does what he can to keep her happy, but we also find that he is destined to fail at holding their marriage together. The story progresses without melodrama. We learn the facts and later realize their significance. It is tragedy told from the point of view of someone who needs to make sense of the misery.

The story is real and sad, and I found myself feeling uncomfortable in parts because we see Georgie's mistake being made, we understand how it could happen and we despise ourselves for being a part of it. We won't let it happen again, but of course it does. When Peter discovers Georgie's betrayal we think we already know how it will end, but the knockout punch, quietly and expertly foreshadowed throughout the novel, took me by surprise.

After reading this book I find myself wondering who is the villain. It bothers me. Who are we supposed to blame? Perhaps this is the brilliance in the novel. Full of ripe and realistic characters in a situation that makes the reader uncomfortable, it has beauty alongside the sadness. It is worth a read, and then another.

I stormed through this book in a couple of days, I had to keep coming back to it. I was taken aback at first by the narrator-- his separation from the action (and his wife's consciousness) that he renders in such detail. But then I saw in him the frustrated writer filling in the blanks to further torture himself with a sordid blow-by-blow-- then ultimately, as the author of his own tragedy, in betraying the banality of it all, as against his marriage. My sympathies and allegiances were yanked all over the place, but the payoff left me with a deep forgiveness for human folly and longing, and a sober appreciation of all that can be lost and gained when weighing personal pride and hurt against the chance for redemption in love. Hats off to the author.

This is a beautifully written story about many different kinds of love: married love, parental love, romantic love, love for work, and how all of those intersect and often conflict. Each of the characters seems real and vivid and believable, and the voice of the husband narrator completely compelling. I agree with the reviewers who have pointed out that it is hard to pinpoint a villain in this book, but that is a sign of literary quality; these are not unlikeable characters whose ultimate fate does not matter. One of my favorite parts of the book is the way two stories are woven together; the life of a contemporary actress and mother, and the real historical figure of Dora Jordan, a woman ahead of her time. Both stories gripped me; both broke my heart. Highly recommended.

A taut and penetrating examination of the psychology of a marriage struggling between life's inevitable rip tide of complacency and the rocky showls of infidelity. The journalist husband narrates this tale of desire and suffering with the kind of helpless compassion one feels watching a car wreck--the details are etched on the eye, the fault is obvious and irrelevant, the impact devestating and there's not a damn thing he can do now except relive it. While the book is set in the glamorous New York and London theater worlds, the couple, their children and their journey could be transposed anywhere where young people with dreams fall in love, have children and desperately try to figure out if their new mini van can in any way get them where they thought they wanted to go. Once begun, you won't be able to put it down.

The parallels of Dora Jordan and Georgie Connolly's predicaments in Nancy Woodruff's "My Wife's Affair" are skillfully woven into the story and the dialogue is crisp without being flip. The pacing is excellent outside of the clunky opening and the reader is absorbed. The problem, the plot is too by the numbers and, unfortunately, an alert reader would see the tragic ending coming by three quarters through. Although, Ms. Woodruff writes so well that this is not necessarily a bad thing as the reader is curious as to how it is done.

Other weaknesses:

1. Georgie Connolly -Please, the affair itself is so trite as to be banal. How many times have we seen the younger woman, older man who is a rake scenario. Trying to tie in Georgie Connolly to Dora Jordan in this case doesn't work.

2. Peter Martin, the husband and narrator is not to be believed. The character comes off as either histrionic or amazingly dense. The ending of the book doesnt work with him because it is totally out of character for what the reader has been led to believe about him.

3. Piers -The foil/villain? Boring. The reader can see this coming a mile away.

Not to bore anyone further but characterization is very weak in this novel. The by the numbers plot coupled with the lack of any feeling towards the characters, either positive or negative, deadens the impact of the ending because the author has not led the reader to care enough for these characters.

Stil, a very good book by a good writer. I enjoyed it and would recommend it to both male and female reader.

If you've got a hot work project with an overdue deadline, a soccer game that you simply must attend, or any "must do" commitments in the next couple of days, whatever you do, DON'T pick up this book. It will grip you, entice you, and place you under its spell. And in the end, it just may break your heart.

The book, narrated by Peter - a wannabe novelist turned businessman - focuses on his wife Georgie, a mother of three who has become unmoored with the day-to-day drudgeries of an ordinary life. A promotion to London puts a world of possibilities suddenly within reach. Peter ponders, "Shouldn't I have told her...that everyone's life had flat, ordinary parts? That growing older meant moving on, closing chapters in your life and opening new ones..."

But he senses Georgie's boredom and is on her side when she reignites her acting career, taking on the prestigious one-woman role of the true-life preeminent 18th century comedic British stage actress Dora Jordan. As she throws herself in the role, she discovers that she and Dora - the long-time companion of the Duke of Clarence (later, William IV) and the mother of 10 of his children - have a natural affinity.

Gradually, Georgie "twins" herself to Dora, a kindred spirit whose struggle of motherhood versus career so mirrors her own. And, as any reader can guess from the title of the book, she enters into an affair with the elusive playwright, Piers Brighstone, that sets in motion a chain of events with tragic consequences.

There is much about this book that sets it apart from the "chick lit" designation it might have become in a lesser author's hands. For one thing, there's the strength of the writing; Nancy Woodruff never resorts to overwrought, obvious, or manipulative sentences. For another, these characters and their pain are achingly real with genuine insights. At one point, Peter reflects, "When I looked at Georgie I saw two different people, the one I loved and the one who had broken my heart, and I had no idea how to dispose of one without losing the other."

But perhaps most compelling is the interspersed letters of Dora Jordan herself; in a preface the author claims to "remain faithful to both the facts of Mrs. Jordan's life - insofar as they are known -and the warmth of her voice." As Georgie states, "Two hundred years later and it's exactly the same thing."

This is an unsparing look at a modern (and not-so-modern) marriage, a punishing glimpse into the costs of the decisions we make - yet it's never preachy or moral. While I was reading My Wife's Affair, I was totally enveloped into the world Nancy Woodruff created. The "new life rising from the ashes of Georgie's unhappiness" is really about getting what you want...and still wanting more.

It appears that every other book I pick up is about adultery. After "My Wife's Affair", I can't imagine reading a book about this subject matter that can come near to this author's.

A beautifully written, haunting book that had me at page one and never let go. This book depicts a married couple on a collision course to catastrophe. The narrator of the story is the husband, who moves his family to England for a job. She is an actress/mom that auditions for a role of a life-time, playing a real life English stage actress who was the mistress to a king. The brutal part of this story is that even though both characters make serious mistakes, they are very sympathetic, and you can understand with perfect clarity how this could have happened. Even though the author does an excellent job of foreshadowing, nothing prepares you for the one/two punch of the ending. Very highly recommended, one of the few that lasts with you for years.

From the first page, I was completely absorbed in this beautiful book. Nancy Woodruff writes with devastating honesty about the compromises and betrayals of family life. Her prose is so graceful and charming, you feel like you're hearing from a good friend--the one who always tells you the truth, no matter how difficult or unflattering. Highly recommended!

The story draws you in and never lets you go. I wanted to sneak away from everything else and just keep reading.

Language, characters, details, all painted with skill and care. All the elements weave together to make this my favourite book of the year.